1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and a recording method.
2. Related Art
An ink jet printer, for example, causes a plurality of nozzles aligned in a predetermined nozzle alignment direction and a print substrate (recording substrate) to relatively move in a relative movement direction intersecting with the nozzle alignment direction, an ink droplet (liquid droplet) is discharged from the nozzle in accordance with nozzle data indicating presence or absence of a dot for each pixel, and dots are formed on the print substrate. In addition, in order to perform printing rapidly, a line printer has been known, in which the print substrate is transported without moving nozzles aligned across substantially an entire width of the print substrate in a width direction intersecting with a transport direction of the print substrate, and a printed image is formed. In order to align the nozzles substantially all across the print substrate in the width direction, the line printer uses a plurality of chips (recording heads) which have a nozzle row and the nozzles aligned in a joined section of two adjacent chips are overlapped in some cases. In a case where the nozzles are partially overlapped, the print substrate has a solo region in which a dot is formed by one nozzle and an overlap region in which a dot is formed by a plurality of nozzles.
When the ink droplet is not discharged from the nozzle due to clogging or the like or the discharged ink droplet does not draw a correct trajectory, a “dot deficient” region in which pixels by which dots are not formed are continuous in the relative movement direction is formed and a streak of a white line is produced on a printed image. In order to prevent this streak, there has been an attempt that a complementary dot that complements a dot which is supposed to be formed by a defective nozzle is formed by a complementary nozzle.
Further, although a dot formed by the defective nozzle is not complemented in technology, JP-A-2012-187931 discloses an ink jet recording apparatus that selects, as an overlapping nozzle, a nozzle which has the minimum shift length in the alignment direction of the nozzles from nozzles positioned in a linked portion of chips (N) and (N+1). Hence, in the linked portion of the chips (N) and (N+1), there is only one nozzle in the chip (N+1) that is combined with nozzles of the chip (n).
JP-A-2012-187931 does not suggest that a dot formed by the defective nozzle is complemented. In addition, the selection of the nozzle has the minimum shift length in the alignment direction of the nozzles means that position adjustment is performed at a nozzle pitch unit in the alignment direction of the nozzles and a streak of unevenness is produced on a printed image in the relative movement direction due to an error less than the nozzle pitch remaining between the nozzles of chips (N) and (N+1). Hence, the technology disclosed in JP-A-2012-187931 does not reach an appropriate technology in which a dot formed by the defective nozzle in the linked portion of the chips is complemented.
Various recording apparatuses have the same problems as described above.